When it comes to lifting versus leaning, Clive Palmer likes to vary his regimen.

Having professed a wish to ''pay my own way a little bit'', some days the Member for Fairfax turns up at Parliament in a set of his own wheels, as opposed to the car supplied to him by the grateful taxpayer.

In order to keep the dancing monkeys of the media entertained, the Palmer United Party potentate alternates between various car makes, all of the kind you would expect a life-size version of a Monopoly board billionaire to use for his commute.

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Some days it's a Rolls-Royce, other days he prefers a Bentley or a Mercedes Benz roadster.

We wait with bated breath for the leopard-print Lamborghini, rumours of which we hope are not apocryphal.

But on Monday, Palmer decided to lean a little, and arrived at work in his Comcar, telling the waiting reporters: ''We've got to keep people employed in the commonwealth.''

Palmer's automotive inconsistency was noted by a national newspaper with which he is engaged in something of a feud, and so on Tuesday he did the mature thing and again turned up in his Comcar, but kept his Rolls-Royce on hand, just to show the bastards.

It was pictured circling Parliament House, sans Clive, like a wobbegong shark working up the courage to ambush something.

This mercurial MP is the man who effectively controls the balance of power, and with whom the government must negotiate its budget. He likes to keep us guessing.

Tuesday's newspapers brought other news, too, specifically the latest polling, which was disappointing for both major parties. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has a record high dissatisfaction rating (45 per cent), but it's not as bad as the Prime Minister's (61 per cent).

The two-party preferred numbers have moved one point closer together, with Labor going down and the Coalition going up. The beneficiaries? Independents and other parties, who are on a record 17 per cent of the vote.

Tuesday's Question Time debate gave us a flavour for the reasons why. The opposition focused its questions on the government's changes to pension indexation, the Prime Minister insisted pensions were going up and would continue to do so.

The opposition asked how young dole recipients were supposed to get by under the government's changes to Newstart, the Prime Minister responded that ''no one should start their adult life on social security''.

The opposition attacked the government's paid parental leave scheme as unaffordable, the Prime Minister defended it on the basis it ''establishes the same rule for the whole country''.

It was all very same-ish, each side locked in its rhetoric and repeating its lines. It made one long for a third way. Or at the very least, for a leopard-print Lamborghini.

31 comments

Sounds like Clive's car shuffle is working. A journo has just told the truth about the worthless rhetoric generated by our political class.

"I'm right about everything and they are wrong about everything".

We'd all rather hear about Clive's latest ride.

Commenter

Voltara

Location

Brisbane

Date and time

June 18, 2014, 5:19AM

A wobbegong does not circle its prey. It finds a comfortable place and waits for the fish to swim into its mouth.

Commenter

Voltara

Location

Brisbane

Date and time

June 18, 2014, 5:20AM

Still a great simile though. Not all that threatening, gaudy, slightly ludicrous...

Commenter

eddiedunlop

Location

Epping

Date and time

June 18, 2014, 6:07AM

Oh dear,

The sluggish wobbegong spends much of its day lying motionless in parliament.

By opening its wide mouth and expanding its throat, the wobbegong can effectively suck in its prey (many of which blunder unwittingly towards the mouth) trapping and killing it with its powerful jaws and big teeth.

Source: http://eol.org/pages/994852/details

Commenter

Chipps

Date and time

June 18, 2014, 9:36AM

With any luck the move to minor parties and the Greens will be sustained as an indication of increasing dissatisfaction with the Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee major parties who appear to the electorate to offer little in the way of real choice to the voter on so many issues of principle!!

Commenter

Lesm

Location

Balmain

Date and time

June 18, 2014, 5:25AM

With Question Time descending into a school yard farce thank god for Clive and his fleet of exotic cars. Anyone who can put up with viewing an hour of QT must at least appreciate the comedy and banality of the governments own "Dorothy Dixers". Who ever writes these questions so that back benchers can have their brief moment in the sun deserves a future in entertainment far beyond the sterile surrounds of parliament. As for the Ministers fielding the questions an acting career beckons as they fulminate on and on about the shortfalls of the previous government. Gold Logies in particular to Smoking Joe Hockey and Horatio Morrison for outstanding performances.

Commenter

JohnC

Location

Gosford NSW

Date and time

June 18, 2014, 5:45AM

The Banana Republic and their MONKEYS in full swing.

Is this the clever and knowledgeable country we are?

Commenter

?

Location

Sydney

Date and time

June 18, 2014, 5:56AM

I am happy for Clive to arrive at Parliament on a balloon or a camel, so long as he stops Tony Abbott.

Commenter

Bill

Date and time

June 18, 2014, 6:07AM

Endless days on the beach. The waves are relentlessly rolling in. The benign soft waves rage into crashing surf and dumpers. The flotsam and jetsam is mounting up, some natural debris and the plain junk of careless disposal.The sand whirls sting and irritate everything and everyone. For the beached constitutions, sunburnt and sore, there must be better days to come.It is whale watching season.

Commenter

Koel

Location

Central Qld

Date and time

June 18, 2014, 6:27AM

Clive Palmer is probably also out for number one. At least while he is doing it, he retains a semblance of decency.